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860 Series

Benchmarks for Samsung’s new 860-series SSDs are in, showing impressive performance. Samsung has launched two new SATA SSDs, the 860 EVO and the 860 PRO – aimed at the mainstream and professional markets respectively. Samsung’s previous-generation 850 EVO SSD dominated performance and endurance comparisons against similarly-priced drives, making it an ideal choice for a consumer SSD.

The more expensive 850 PRO competed against the best drives on the market and regularly outpaced them in terms of performance. According to early benchmark and pricing data, the new 860-series drives have improved on the previous generation.

Specifications

Both SDDs use the Samsung MJX Controller and are available in capacities of up to 4TB. The specifications and South African pricing for the Samsung 860-Series SSDs are below.

No local pricing for the 4TB versions was available at the time of writing.

Specifications

Samsung 860 EVO

Samsung 860 PRO

Interface

SATA 6Gbps

SATA 6Gbps

Form Factor

2.5-inch, mSATA, M.2.

2.5-inch

Flash

V-NAND 3bit MLC

V-NAND 2bit MLC

Capacity

250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB

256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB

Cache Memory

250GB – 512MB LPDDR4

500GB – 512MB LPDDR4

1TB – 1GB LPDDR4

2TB – 2GB LPDDR4

4TB – 4GB LPDDR4

256GB – 512MB LPDDR4

512GB – 512MB LPDDR4

1TB – 1GB LPDDR4

2TB – 2GB LPDDR4

4TB – 4GB LPDDR4

Sequential Read/Write

550/520 MB/s

560/530 MB/s

Random Read/Write

98k/90k IOPS

100k/90k IOPS

Total Bytes Written

250GB – 150TB

500GB – 300TB

1TB – 600TB

2TB – 1,200TB

4TB – 2,400TB

256GB – 300TB

512GB – 600TB

1TB – 1,200TB

2TB – 2,400TB

4TB – 4,800TB

Price

Performance

Benchmarks conducted by AnandTech[1] show the exceptional performance of the Samsung 860 PRO 512GB and 4TB SSDs compared to their predecessors and other high-end drives. It stated that the Samsung PM981 PCIe SSD was the only drive to outpace the Samsung 860 PRO in data transfer rates in its tests. The figures show that the 860 Pro is now the most powerful SATA SSD on the market, claiming the title from its predecessor, the 850 Pro.

The Samsung 860 Evo is not as suited for professional applications, but is the better choice for gamers and everyday users, due to its impressive performance and much lower price.